‘Excuse me, did you just call out for Saffie Winters?’
‘I did. Have you seen her?’
She shook her head as her stomach instantly lurched. Saffie was the star of the show, the headline act. She should be preparing to perform.
Kim grabbed Nancy’s arm. ‘Has she been here at all?’
The woman frowned at Kim’s hand on her arm.
‘Maybe a little while ago. I thought I saw her.’
‘Well did you see her or…’
Her words trailed away as she looked questioningly at Dawson and Stacey heading towards them. The woman took the opportunity to snatch her arm back and mutter something inaudible as she strode away. Kim could see the anxiety on their faces.
‘What are you doing here, Stace?’ Kim asked. Recalling Alex’s words, she’d instructed the constable to mine for any acts of violence carried out by the older kids at Heathcrest.
‘I needed to tell Kev something about the Forbes family.’
Kim had no idea who that was or how that pertained to their current investigation but her current priority was a missing sixteen-year-old girl.
‘Have you seen Saffie?’ she asked, as the wall of unease continued to grow in her stomach.
Dawson shook his head. ‘No, boss, but I think we need to find her. I’m pretty sure she’s the girl who had the abortion. I reckon Sadie knew about it and was angry with her and wrote the poem.’
Kim nodded. It’s what they had all begun to suspect. Somehow Kim had always felt that the girl had been at the centre of this entire investigation, and now she was nowhere to be found.
‘Okay, we need—’
‘Boss, there’s something else. I think we might have a kid in danger.’
‘Another?’
Kim listened as he explained what Stacey had already told him.
‘And you think this kid, Geoffrey, is in danger because he refused to join the Spades?’
He didn’t hesitate. ‘After what I’ve learned this week, I’m absolutely sure of it.’
There were times when Kim trusted Dawson’s instinct almost as well as her own.
‘Okay, Dawson, you go and find this kid. Bryant, see if Saffie is with any of her friends, and Stacey stay here in case she turns up. I’m going to see if her parents have seen her.’
She turned to watch as her team moved slowly away in different directions.
‘Hey, guys,’ she called. ‘Stay safe.’
But none of them appeared to hear.
Ninety-Six
Kim stepped into the ballroom, her eyes searching the room, amongst the tuxedos and ballgowns.
A couple swept past her, took a seat and began to peruse the programme handed to them at the door. The chairs had been arranged in two squares either side of a carpeted aisle that Kim’s boots sank into. She guessed the place was approximately half full of splendidly regaled observers, eager for the show to begin. Which was due to happen in half an hour.
Kim looked to the left and then to the right as she headed up the aisle.
The Winters were front row left, seated beside the Coffee-Todd family. Of course, these parents would have pride of place. The memorial was for their children. Kim glanced around, wondering who would be here for Joanna.
She nodded to both families before speaking.
‘Mr Winters, have you seen Saffron?’ she asked.
He smiled tolerantly. ‘She’s getting ready to perform, officer. She has a solo.’
‘I understand that,’ Kim said respectfully. ‘But have you seen her back there?’ she asked.
He shook his head. ‘We wouldn’t disturb her before such an important performance. She needs time to collect her—’
‘Not even to wish her good luck?’ Kim asked, as she tried to still the panic growing inside her.
He frowned. ‘I sent her a text, telling her to break a leg.’
‘And did she reply?’ Kim asked, impatiently.
Winters reached into his pocket as alarm began to register on all of their faces. His hand trembled slightly as he scrolled down. He shook his head and held the screen towards her. ‘In fact, I don’t think it’s even been read.’
Kim looked and saw only the tick to say the message had been delivered but no read receipt.
He put his phone away. ‘What’s going on, officer?’ he asked, as his wife clutched his arm.
How the hell was she going to do this to a couple who had already suffered the loss of one daughter?
‘Sir, it appears that your daughter Saffron has gone missing. And no one has seen her for hours.’
Ninety-Seven
Dawson knocked once and then entered.
‘Hey, what the—’
‘Where’s Geoffrey?’ he asked, without preamble, glancing at the tidily made bed in the corner.
‘Geoffrey who?’ said the kid on the bed without looking up from his iPad.
The other two boys on the bed near the door guffawed and nudged each other.
‘Geoffrey Piggott, your room-mate,’ Dawson snapped.
The kid on the iPad shrugged. ‘Who cares?’
Dawson felt the rage ignite in his body at the superior dismissiveness of his tone.
‘I bloody care,’ he said, advancing towards him.
The kid finally looked up from whatever game he was playing. His young face set in a sneer.
‘Good for you, you’re the only one.’
Dawson wondered at what stage common decency entered the school curriculum, and yet even he knew that cruelty in kids was not limited to the privileged.
‘Hey, mister,’ said one of the kids from behind. ‘You care that much buy him some diet pills.’
The others laughed, and Dawson had a sudden vision of life for Geoffrey in this dorm room. No wonder he studied on a seat in the great hall. At least when he had been at school he’d been able to escape it at 3 o’clock every day. This kid had no escape. He got tortured in lessons, sometimes by the teachers, at break time if he couldn’t find anywhere to hide and then when he came back to his room.
‘You think it’s funny to make his life a misery?’
‘Yeah,’ they all said together.
Dawson detected not one ounce of regret amongst them. To them it was a staple of school life, go to lessons, go to lunch, bully the fat kid.
‘Listen here, you bunch of little shits,’ Dawson said, turning on them all. ‘Dismiss him all you like right now while he’s the fat kid and the butt of your jokes, but some day that kid is going to do something amazing with his life and boy will you wish you’d given him a chance. You poke fun at him to take attention away from yourselves in your pathetic little clan. Oh, and just so you know, this week he got the ace of spades, so someone else thinks he’s pretty special too.’
He now had the boys’ full attention, speaking a language they could understand. If nothing else, they knew how influential a club member could be. He chose not to add that the kid had refused. The shock on their faces was enough reward as they all wondered what his new-found power could mean for them.
‘So, where is he?’
‘Sports hall,’ the iPad kid spluttered. ‘He said something about the sports hall.’
Dawson turned and headed out of the room. A sense of urgency in his step.
Ninety-Eight
‘Should I come too?’ asked Mr Coffee-Todd as Mr and Mrs Winters got to their feet.
Kim opened her mouth to advise him when Winters’s shake of the head and warning glance told him no.
The three of them headed down the aisle together. Kim slowed to accommodate Mrs Winters’s four-inch heels.
Thorpe appeared in the doorway, resplendent in his tuxedo.
Seeing her face, he frowned. ‘Inspector, is everything—?’
‘Saffron Winters has gone missing,’ she said. ‘No one has seen her for hours.’
His face relaxed. ‘Officer, amongst the chaos of a big production it’s understandable that people get mislaid for a short while. She’s probably off somewhere composing herself.’
‘Thank you,’ Kim said, stepping around him. He really had nothing useful to offer.
‘Should we try her room first?’ Mrs Winters asked, holding her gown a few inches from the floor to keep up.
Kim stopped walking and shook her head. It was the first place Bryant would go. There was no point them all looking in the same place.
‘Try her phone again,’ Kim said, moving aside for more couples to enter the room.